A State-Owned Chinese Company You've Never Heard Of Has Replaced Microsoft At CES

Before last year's CES even began, Microsoft announced it wouldn't attend the show in 2013.

Microsoft had a huge booth in 2012 where it showed off the yet-to-be-released Windows 8 operating system for PCs and tablets. It was a big deal.

Today, Microsoft's booth space has been replaced by Hisense, a state-owned Chinese electronics company that's making a big push in the U.S. with several new television sets, including Smart TVs powered by Google TV.

As Microsoft struggles with reportedly low Windows 8 sales, it's pretty interesting to see an unheard of Chinese company swoop in and tackle the next big thing in consumer electronics: TV.